NOTO, UNESCO world heritage baroque town in Sicily
The late Baroque towns of the Val di Noto In 1693, a terrible earthquake devastated the southeast of Sicily, flattening towns and killing hundreds.
The response to this disaster was Phoenixesque, a rising from the rubble that sparked the beginning of an inspiring, utterly beautiful late Baroque renaissance.
Some towns were rebuilt from scratch on new sites, others stayed where they had always been.
What is particularly striking is the diversity of the architecture, with each town (Caltagirone, Catania, Militello Val di Catania, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo Acreide, Ragusa and Scicli) creating its own inimitable style.
In the words of UNESCO, “the Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto in southeastern Sicily provide outstanding testimony to the exuberant genius of late Baroque art and architecture… and represent the culmination and final flowering of Baroque art in Europe.”
The response to this disaster was Phoenixesque, a rising from the rubble that sparked the beginning of an inspiring, utterly beautiful late Baroque renaissance.
Some towns were rebuilt from scratch on new sites, others stayed where they had always been.
What is particularly striking is the diversity of the architecture, with each town (Caltagirone, Catania, Militello Val di Catania, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo Acreide, Ragusa and Scicli) creating its own inimitable style.
In the words of UNESCO, “the Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto in southeastern Sicily provide outstanding testimony to the exuberant genius of late Baroque art and architecture… and represent the culmination and final flowering of Baroque art in Europe.”
